Lazy Man and Money

How to Save $150 on Cable

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My husband and I are pop-culture nerds. We love chatting about the latest music, video games, and television shows. In the past, we planted ourselves happily in front of the TV for hours before and after work. But then, the bills started adding up.

Cut Cable Bill
Image from the WSJ

In 2013, we were paying an astounding $190 for cable, which did not include premium channels like HBO or Showtime. Even more frustrating was the horrible customer treatment and unreliable service, not to mention the dozens of channels we didn’t even watch but were paying for.

When we started saving up for our wedding, we looked for ways to cut costs. The cable bill was one of our biggest expenses, but much of what we watched was online anyway – even currently airing shows, which we often watched on Hulu or network sites. We realized that we could save $150 a month on our cable bill every month by doing something almost unthinkable for pop-culture nerds like us: we cut our cable service.

How We Still Tune In Without Cable

We’ve learned to get creative in order not to miss our favorite shows or programs. Here’s a quick rundown of what has worked for us (and associated costs):

Get an Antenna

Hi-def antennas are ubiquitous for anyone without cable. Costing anywhere from $40-120, these little devices, similar to the “bunny ears” our parents used to use, allow us to watch live local network broadcasts. This way, we don’t miss the shows we actually watch live, like The Amazing Race and The Good Wife. Depending on where you live, you may have to spend some time configuring the location of your television or the antenna’s receiver to get the best reception – but it’s totally worth it.

Stream for Free

Streaming services are already inexpensive – currently around $8-15 a month. But it’s even better if you can get it for free. For example, we nabbed a promotion from a local bank to get Netflix free for a year – and we have a coupon code from our internet provider for another free year, which we can redeem next year. If you can’t get one of these great deals, try asking for gift cards or subscriptions for birthdays or holidays. It’s a great way to reduce bills without cutting down on your TV watching.

[Editor: If you are going to stream television, the very best money you can spend is getting a PlayOn Plus account. It turns streaming television to a computer into a full DVR. See my review: PlayOn Plus Will Change How You Watch Television]

Split Costs

My dad loves cable; he’d never cut the cord. However, he’s more than happy to share his login with us, so long as we contribute to his bill. By splitting costs, we’re able to watch our favorite cable series like Game of Thrones and South Park, and he’s able to cut down on his overall cable costs. We can even stream live sports and children’s TV for our daughter!

[Editor: Show your father how he can eliminate his cable box (DVR) monthly fees! and he might let you have that login for free each month.]

Connect to Your TV

Did you know your TV was made for streaming? It’s true! HDTVs have connections for HDMI devices like Roku and Chromecast, and most laptops even have HDMI ports to connect to your television. These devices are all inexpensive and allow us to watch everything we want in stunning HD. All you need is an internet connection and a device, and you’re set to go!

So far, cutting cable has helped us save nearly $4,000 to pay off debt, travel, and pay for our wedding without going into credit card debt. While I still sometimes get jealous of my friends who have hundreds of channels at their fingertips, I honestly believe cutting the cord has greatly improved the quality of our lives. By reducing our cable bill, we have learned how to prioritize the things that matter in life.

Cut the Cord With Tablo TV?

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A couple of months ago, I wrote about how you can kill your cable box DVR monthly fees. For me, the biggest thing about cutting the cord isn’t necessarily losing the cable television*, it’s the time-shifting of network television shows.

On a basic level, it seems pretty silly to pay a bunch of money each month for what should be solved by one-time costs of a hard drive and a television antenna.

Fortunately a commenter on that last post mentioned TabloTV DVR. I had looked at it a long time ago (perhaps before it was actually released), but had forgotten about it.

It’s something that I’m considering again though.

Most people are probably wondering what the heck I’m writing about. TabloTV is the device that can bridge a high-definition antenna and a hard drive and give you DVR. The 4-tuner version is under $300 and the 2-tuner version is under $200. I don’t watch a lot of television, but there are some nights when three shows I follow are on at the same time. Other nights, it’s zero. For me it’s worth spending the extra money for the 4-tuners.

Of course it requires that you have an HD antenna set up. It also requires that you buy a hard drive to store all the shows. Then you need something on your televisions to connect to the network with your shows. This can be an Amazon Fire TV Stick, Roku, etc. I happen to meet that requirement on my two televisions already.

In fact, there happens to be a big ChromeCast deal today. Amazon will give you a $10 gift card when you buy it for $30.

If you are starting from scratch, you can probably put together a set-up, my favorite antenna, TabloTV, a harddrive, and a couple of Chromecasts for under $500. I’d estimate the average basic cable television bill at around $60. It would pay for itself in about 8 months… and after that you’d save significant money, $720 a year.

There are times when you can make a switch and save money without losing any functionality. The Ooma Telo free home phone service is a perfect example of this. In this case, you are going to lose access to cable channels… so it’s not an even trade. However, it’s not as bad as cutting the cord and losing access to record your own television shows.

What do you think? Is this a smart plan, or does it stretch frugality a little too far? Let me know in the comments.

* Actually I’ve become quite enthralled by Pretty Little Liars in it’s last season. I wouldn’t say that I passively watched it while working when my wife had it on, but it wasn’t something that I put the laptop away for.

Working on a $100 Computer

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A few weeks ago, I brought you 10 Hacks to Speed Up Your Browser. I explored how I hacked my version of Firefox to run very fast and consume much less memory (most of the tricks will work for Chrome as well). What I didn’t know is that within a week, I’d be forced to put the hacks to the test.

My crazy computer purchase of February 2013 died on me. An ounce of drink hit the keyboard and though it worked for a few more hours, I had trouble getting it started after it went to sleep. It turns out that both the video card and the keyboard took major damage. I was able to rescue it long enough by plugging it in to television and using a spare keyboard. Getting that to work seemed nothing short of miraculous.

This put me in a position of needing a computer to work, but not having one. Circuit City is long gone. Best Buy moved out of my town years ago. I could get something cheap from Wal-Mart, but when you use a computer as much as I do, you don’t want to make a 2+ year decision because of a day or two.

And this is when I cashed in on the best insurance I bought last year. During Black Friday I bought a ASUS X205TA Laptop at Staples for $100. My rationale was that it would be a great travel computer at 2.2 pounds with 12 hour battery life. The processor runs like it is powered by a hamster wheel. It has very little memory meaning you can only open up a couple of programs before it grinds to halt. The screen angle has to be just right. The 11.6-inch screen is a big difference from the 16-inches I used a few years ago.

However, I was able to get real work done. I could write articles, check emails, update spreadsheets and just about anything else I needed to do.

It made me think, “What if I could just pick up nearly any computer and get to work?” What if I could do the same things on a $100 computer that cost me $1100 two years ago? Computers are getting cheaper and cheaper, but my computing needs aren’t necessarily expanding. The ability to retain my data and workflow are far more important to me than hardware itself.

I can’t lie, my computing desires expand all the time. I look up all the latest laptops much more often than I should. There’s sexy 4K screens and new processors that zip along using very little battery, all wrapped up in a package of around 2.5 pounds or less. As long as I can keep myself in check, being productive on a very cheap computer could save me hundreds of dollars.

Create a “Work Anywhere” Environment

Being able to work on any computer saved my bacon in this disaster. How did I do it? I simply looked at everything I do and tried to find a way to make it work on another computer. Specifically, these things came in particularly handy:

  • Firefox Sync – I was very nervous about syncing my browsing history with a third-party. It seems like a huge security risk. After reading about how the security was handled, I felt more secure. Being able to download Firefox (even on my Android phone and tablet) and have my browsing environment is about 80% of the battle.
  • LastPass – I use LastPass to store and secure all my passwords. If I can remember one password, I have them all. It seems like every site I use nowadays requires a login, so this is huge.
  • Google Documents – I have documents and spreadsheets that I want to have with me at all times. For example, I have notes on the articles that I am intending to write as well as a spreadsheet of earnings.

I’m sure I’m just touching the surface of what I could use. Feedly and Pocket are two apps that I’m looking to use more. I recently started to use NotePad++ which offers backing up data to the cloud via DropBox and similar services. I’m going to see if I can use this to sync files a little faster than dealing with Google Documents (it can be a bit of a resource hog to leave it open all the time).

I am testing my “work anywhere” environment by trying to work on my wife’s computer with my own separate Windows login. (I offer the same to her on my computer of course.) So far it is working pretty nicely.

What I Learned From Using a $100 Computer

I learned two really valuable lessons from using a $100 computer:

  1. While the computer is functional, it is annoying enough to use that I found myself looking forward to doing errands rather than goofing off.
  2. Most people probably don’t need nearly as much “computer” as they think they do.

There’s definitely some kind of sweet spot of having a very functional computer at a relatively bargain price. In the past you might need to spend $500 to satisfy basic computing needs. I feel like that has shifted significantly and much of that money is more about wants.

That leads me to…

Should You Really Skimp on a Computer?

This is a difficult question and it really depends on the person. I use my computer so much, that I feel like any loss in productivity would be magnified. At the same time, my wife uses her non-work computer only about an hour a day, so it isn’t magnified as much.

I’m going to cop out escape this question by simply saying that many people could save money if they wish to.

Next week, I’ll review the new computer I bought. In writing this article, I’ve realized I might have made a several hundred dollar mistake.

One Month of Solar Power

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I hit refresh on the browser for at least the 10th time only to get the same result as before… nothing. “Why won’t they bill me?!?!”, I thought.

Yes, I was anxiously hoping to get a bill. I had officially entered Bizarro World.

I’ve been writing about my solar journey for about a year now. This may be my last post for awhile. After getting solar installed and it starts paying, the hope is that I am in the “happy ever after” phase… until there’s a problem. I’m going to be optimistic and presume that I have no problems to write about for a long while.

My wife and I learned one very important thing this month, but I’m sure you don’t want to read it now… we’ll get to it later.

Back to the bill. I would have to wait until the next morning.

When it came, it was almost exactly as I had expected… almost. The bill was for $-87.68. Yes that’s a negative. Not only did I get all my electricity for free… the electric company owed me money. Our solar panels produced 1035 kWh and we used only 458 kWh. We had a credit of 577 kWh… which was worth $87.68 after a few taxes and fees were subtracted out.

Why was it only almost as I expected? When we buy power from the electric company there is a delivery charge of a few cents per kWh. When we produce our own power we don’t need to pay that. However, we don’t get a credit for delivering any extra power. Thus when our credit of 577 kWh is converted into cash, it doesn’t buy as much power in the future… that cash has to pay for delivery as well.

That’s not a big deal. It was unexpected, but not exactly a game changer.

Now for the reveal of what my wife and I learned. We conserved power like never before.

The Spring months are the best time to build credit. We aren’t using huge energy draws like air condition. We are also producing a lot of power (as you can see).

We spent the month with a special mindfulness towards our electricity use. I’m not sure if it will carry into the future. I feel like it might because each day I check to see how much power our solar panels are producing. (For May, we are on pace to produce nearly 1200 kWh.)

That mindfulness is one of the hidden advantages in going solar.

So that’s where we are today. We’ve eliminated our electricity bill (replacing it with a solar panel bill) and are even earning a sizable credit for this winter.

Kill Your Cable Box (DVR) Monthly Fees!

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For the last 3.5 years I haven’t paid the cable company a penny in rental fees for a cable boxes. I didn’t sacrifice any features I use and actually gained quite a few.

Most people pay around $8/mo. for a dumb box (no DVR) or $16/mo. for (limited) DVR storage. I was one of those paying $16/month before I switched to my new system. It has saved me more than $650 over that time.

I’m going to tell you how you can do the same. However first, a little back story.

The Quest for Cable Box Freedom

A few years ago, I realized that I have been renting cable boxes for 7-8 years… and television technology hadn’t changed much. There was the move to HD, but at the core, it was still a DVR. DVR was the innovation that TiVo popularized back in 1999, when it created software to pair with its computer hardware to record video to a hard drive for later viewing as well as pausing, rewinding, and all the things we love about DVR.

There’s no good reason (other than a cable monopoly) for someone to have to rent a computer with a hard drive for the DVR experience. There’s only one small ongoing cost and it’s updating the guide… something that’s been included with cable service for years.

Over the years, I had spent around $1500 in renting DVR boxes. They weren’t getting any better.

To top it off, they are incredible power hogs adding as much as another $8 a month in energy bills. In total, we are looking at more than $275 a year for DVR.

The situation that consumers find themsevles in is crazy. It’s like being forced to have to rent a television at insane Rent-A-Center rates to work with your cable company’s service. How would you react if you had to spend $100 a month ($1200 a year) for a television that was very, very old technology? That’s what most consumers get with their cable boxes.

And don’t try upgrade your cable box, you’ll lose all your content. If properly designed, they could make the hard drives swappable so that you could get your content, but they don’t do that. They also don’t offer a way to download the content so you could archive it.

With the exception of the cloud services, the whole technology is stuck in 2004.

There must be a way to stop the insanity, right?

There is.

CableCARD and HDHomeRun Prime

Back in 1996, it seems there was legislation that required cable companies to provide a means for people to not be locked into proprietary cable boxes. The result was CableCARD, a technology that was included in a few televisions, which very few people used.

Why did no one use them? Cable companies resisted it. The average consumer wouldn’t know about it. In addition, it cost more for television-makers to implement the technology. Consumers naturally took the cheaper option. And by the time it was really effective (around 2007 from the Wikipedia reference), people wanted DVR. CableCARD doesn’t give you DVR, just the ability to receive and decode cable without a set-top box. People weren’t really getting the functionality they wanted, when they bought a television with a CableCARD slot.

CableCARD did find a home in Tivo boxes. The devices work well with CableCARDs and fans of the technology seem to love it. Unfortunately, TiVO is expensive. It comes with the same subscription fees just like your cable DVR’s. You can get a “lifetime” subscription, but it is very misleading. The “lifetime” is of a device (which obviously has no “life”) and not the buyer’s lifetime as one would expect. Also the lifetime subscription is around $500, which will likely carry you to when your device is obsolete. Then you’ll buy a new one with a new “lifetime” subscription.

It became clear to me that Tivo wasn’t a good way to avoid subscription fees. It was a way to pay them at once.

The Winning Combination

You can avoid all these things by piecing together a few computer parts. I go into great detail here, but for the most part you need:

  1. A Computer
  2. HDHomeRun Prime
  3. Windows 7

The Computer

You don’t need a very powerful computer, I bought the most powerful available Dell Zino nearly four years ago… and they were a little old at the time.

For those who care, it is a AMD Phenom II P940 Quad-Core with a PassMark score of 1674. It uses 35 watts of power. One of the lowest end newer chips today is this Intel Core M with a PassMark score of 2747. It uses 4.5 watts.

Much more power in at a fraction of the energy… isn’t technology awesome!

The Zino has more than handled everything that I threw at it in terms of powering video on my television.

You could attempt to use an Intel Compute Stick, but at a PassMark of 878 I’d wait until the next version is released.

In the meantime, this Intel NUC for under $300 will give you more power than you’ll need and it is a damn cute, wife-pleasing 5-inches by 5-inches (much smaller than that big cable box).

As as much storage space as your like… or as your budget allows. I wouldn’t recommend a SSD, because you don’t need that kind of speed… and they are pricy.

HDHomeRun Prime

This hardware (currently $99), allows you to insert a CableCARD and get all the live channels from your cable company. Sadly, satellite companies and fiber-optic companies (such as Verizon FIOS) don’t need to adhere to the CableCARD standard and you are out of luck with those.

In technology terms it gives you the three television tuners so you can record three things at one time.

Windows 7

Finally, you’ll want Windows 7. Why? Because it contains Windows Media Center (WMC), which is the only software on the planet that works with the HDHomeRun Prime to give you access to copy-protected channels like HBO. If you don’t care about those, you could do it with Linux and Myth TV, but then you get into an especially techie solution.

You can also do it Windows 8, but Microsoft pushed WMC to a premium tier that cost more money and/or required an extra purchase that could cost as much as $100.

Sadly, WMC won’t be offered in Windows 10 at all. Microsoft pulled the plug saying that there wasn’t demand. There wasn’t, because no one has made a particularly user-friendly version of this solution and marketed it. (I have a conspiracy theory that the cable companies are paying Microsoft big money to back down so that they can keep renting DVRs to people at crazy prices. It’s the only reason I can think of why Microsoft isn’t pushing their own cable box solutions like they push Surface.)

Getting Windows 7 isn’t exactly easy, but ZDNet has a bunch of legal ways to get it cheap or even free. It’s better to get it now, before all the options go away.

Show Me The Money!

You combine the three pieces (grab your nearest 14-year old if you need help) and you should be ready to go. Oh you’ll also want this Windows Media Center Remote Control.

Since I went solar, I’ve been paying crazy attention how much power I use. It is shocking to me that cable boxes can use 500 watts. I think the whole solution would probably take around 20 watts or less. So you’d see that $8 monthly electricity bill drop to around 30 cents.

When you add it all up, that annual $275 or so comes to under $5. The hardware will set you back $400 or so to start, but it should pay for itself in under two years. I think that’s a solid return on your investment.